A pedestrian fee? It costs money to walk on Worcester State's campus

Monday

Jan 21, 2013 at 6:00 AMJan 21, 2013 at 5:36 PM

By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

It costs to walk on the campus of Worcester State University.

A “parking/pedestrian access fee” — part of the welter of mandatory and optional student fees that make up the bulk of the cost of a public higher education in the state and the only one at a Central Massachusetts public college or university — has for the last few years been tacked onto WSU students' bills, whether they drive or walk to school.

Beyond simmering discontent over the $72-a-year pedestrian charge, students returning to school last week after winter break were rankled by a severe parking crunch that has further squeezed the campus's already tight parking and forced school officials to institute an unpopular shuttle to Worcester Regional Airport three miles away.

“I think when everyone is on break is the only time you could find parking at WSU,” said Alfred Sogja, a freshman from Worcester.

University officials acknowledge they have a parking shortage, one that will persist for three or four more years, but maintain it is an unavoidable consequence of growth, including a new $45 million athletic complex, new dorms and full-scale library renovation.

And the pedestrian fee is needed to help maintain walkways in an era of decreased state funding for public colleges and universities, they say.

“When you only have a certain amount of money coming from the state, unfortunately the only way to make it work is through fees,” said John Brissette, chairman of the Worcester State Board of Trustees.

For the 2012-2013 academic year, tuition constitutes only 11.7 percent of the average cost of attending one of Massachusetts' nine state universities, with fees making up the bulk of what the students must pay. Students are paying an average of $8,283 in tuition and fees, nearly double the cost a decade ago.

As for parking, Fitchburg State University charges commuting students $50 a year to park, and residents $100. Quinsigamond Community College charges parkers $20 a semester. Mount Wachusett Community College, another commuter-only school, has no parking permit fee. Unlike Worcester State, none of these schools charges a pedestrian fee.

As fees and tuition were rising sharply during the decade, some WSU administrators' salaries were spiking along with them.

In 2009, amid cuts in state funding for public higher education, former president Janelle Ashley riled faculty members by handing out 4 percent to 15 percent raises to 22 nonunion administration employees.

Meanwhile, Mr. Sogja, and other students, said they have sometimes become so frustrated by full parking lots and a full campus garage after circling for a half-hour that they have skipped class and turned around and gone home.

Also, students say the mad scramble for parking pushes drivers out into neighborhood streets, where students have often run afoul of residents and have been ticketed by police.

Now, with three major construction projects under way, it is harder than ever to find precious parking spots at a growing university where parking was already scarce, students parking in one of the school's main lots said last Thursday morning on opening day of the second semester.

On wintry Thursday morning, the lots, empty at 8 a.m. before 8:30 classes, filled up quickly and completely — with long queues of vehicles backed up on Chandler Street waiting to dart into the campus' two main entrances. Soon, side streets near campus also had lines of cars parked along sidewalks in front of private homes.

“I have no idea how people park,” said Nick Guzotis, a senior from Westfield who lives on campus.

Mr. Guzotis doesn't have a car, but he and his girlfriend, Kelsey Jarosz, a WSU junior who lives in Holden and drives to school, said she often can't visit him because she can't find parking.

“After they took the parking away from up top, it got ridiculous,” Mr. Guzotis said, referring to the loss of more than 100 spots with the recent start of construction of a new 400-bed dormitory on a hill overlooking the sports field and running track.

As for the airport shuttle, which officials have tried to entice students to use with offers of free Starbucks coffee and mugs, another student, Anna Lamothe, a nursing student who lives off-campus, said, “I already pay for parking, so I would never take that shuttle.”

Officials have advised students to build an extra hour into their day in order to use the airport shuttle. Mr. Brissette, the trustee chairman, had this message for students who have complained about the inconvenience of the shuttle: “You need to plan your time accordingly.”

Two students who did not want to be identified because they feared losing financial aid said they resented the parking-pedestrian fee because it automatically appears on their bills and they cannot choose to opt out. Other students said they didn't even notice the fee because they sometimes don't bother scrutinizing their bills because there are so many fees.

Lea Ann Scales, a spokeswoman for the university, said the school changed the way it charged for parking in 2010, when it also first imposed the pedestrian charge. Before then, she said, WSU had an elective parking fee of $120 maximum per year and students with fewer than six credits paying $85.

Ms. Scales said that because students paid out of pocket, the fee could not be offset with financial aid money. Students could choose not to pay the fee, but then they couldn't park on campus.

“Many students expressed frustration that this fee could not be paid for with financial-aid dollars,” she said.

So, Ms. Scales said the school changed the system and put in a mandatory but lower parking fee that is covered, at least in part, by financial aid. The fee is a maximum of $36 a year for part-time students.

Ms. Scales said administrators know parking is in short supply, but she noted that the same problem plagues other colleges and that WSU's master plan calls for another parking garage on the west side of campus in the next few years. The college also recently began leasing 100 parking spaces at Temple Emanuel across the street.

The existing 560-space parking garage, which opened in 2007, fills up just as quickly as the surface lots. Construction bonds for the $10 million garage have not yet been paid, officials said.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the College of the Holy Cross and Assumption College have built similarly sized garages in recent years.

“We know that parking is important,” Ms. Scales said. But, she acknowledged, “Worcester State has had limited success in adding parking.”

Ms. Scales added that students have been consulted in the master planning process and that they have indicated that they want more dorms on campus and better facilities. Those things don't come without cost, she said, hence the necessity to occasionally increase and modify fees.

“It is always a robust discussion, and there's reluctance on behalf of the trustees to raise fees,” Ms. Scales said. “I think the problem they're faced with is a decrease in state funding and a real desire to provide excellence.”

Contact Shaun Sutner by email at ssutner@telegram.com or on Twitter at @ssutner.

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